{"id":344,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=344"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:26","slug":"118-the-present-situation-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/118-the-present-situation-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-118_The Present Situation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe Present Situation*<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n 
\n<\/font>                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>M<\/font>y<\/font><\/b> Fellow-Countrymen, Mr. Ranade has
\nsaid that there is no President here, but that God himself is our President. I
\naccept that remark in the most reverent spirit, and before addressing you, I ask
\nHim first to inspire me. I have been asked to speak on the "Needs of the
\nPresent Situation". What is the present situation? What is the situation of
\nthis country today? Just as I was coming in, this paper (showing the copy of
\nthe <\/i>\u2018Bande Mataram<\/i>\u2019 newspaper<\/i>) <\/i>was put into my hands, and looking at the
\nfirst page of it, I saw two items of news, "The Yugantar <\/i>Trial,
\nJudgment delivered, the Printer convicted and sentenced to two years’ rigorous
\nimprisonment." The other is "Another Newspaper Prosecution, The Nabasakti
\n<\/i>Office sacked and searched, Printer let out on a bail of Rs. 10, 000."
\nThis is the situation of the country today. Do you realise what I mean? There is
\na creed in India today which calls itself Nationalism, a creed which has come to
\nyou from Bengal. This is a creed which many of you have accepted when you called
\nyourselves Nationalists. Have you realised, have you yet realised what that
\nmeans? Have you realised what it is that you have taken in hand? Or is it that
\nyou have merely accepted it in the pride of a superior intellectual conviction?
\nYou call yourselves Nationalists. What is Nationalism? Nationalism is not a mere
\npolitical programme; Nationalism is a religion that has come from God;
\nNationalism is a creed which you shall have to live. Let no man dare to call
\nhimself a Nationalist if he does so merely with a sort of intellectual pride,
\nthinking that he is more patriotic, thinking that he is something higher than
\nthose who do not call themselves by that name. If you are going to be a
\nNationalist, if you are going to assent to this religion of Nationalism, you
\nmust do it in the religious spirit. You must remember that you are<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span>*<\/span>A
\nlecture delivered under the auspices of the Bombay National Union by Sri
\nAurobindo to a large gathering at Mahajan Wadi, Bombay, on Sunday, the 19th
\nJanuary, 1908.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-652<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the
\ninstruments of God. What is this that has happened in Bengal? You call
\nyourselves Nationalists, but when this happens to you, what will you do? This
\nthing is happening daily in Bengal, because, in Bengal, Nationalism has come to
\nthe people as a religion, and it has been accepted as a religion. But certain
\nforces which are against that religion are trying to crush its rising strength.
\nIt always happens when a new religion is preached, when God is going to be born
\nin the people, that such forces rise with all their weapons in their hands to
\ncrush the religion. In Bengal too a new religion, a religion divine and sattwic
\nhas been preached and this religion they are trying with all the weapons at
\ntheir command to crush. By what strength are we in Bengal able to survive?
\nNationalism has not been crushed. Nationalism is not going to be crushed.
\nNationalism survives in the strength of God and it is not possible to crush it,
\nwhatever weapons are brought against it. Nationalism is immortal; Nationalism
\ncannot die; because it is no human thing, it is God who is working in Bengal.
\nGod cannot be killed, God cannot be sent to jail. When these things happen among
\nyou, I say to you solemnly, what will you do? Will you do as they do in Bengal?
\n(Cries of <\/i>‘Yes<\/i>‘) <\/i>Don’t lightly say "yes". It is a solemn thing;
\nand suppose that God puts you this question, how will you answer it? Have you
\ngot a real faith? Or is it merely a political aspiration? Is it merely a larger
\nkind of selfishness? Or is it merely that you wish to be free to oppress others,
\nas you are being oppressed? Do you hold your political creed from a higher
\nsource? Is it God that is born in you? Have you realised that you are merely the
\ninstruments of God, that your bodies are not your own? You are merely
\ninstruments of God for the work of the Almighty. Have you realised that? If you
\nhave realised that, then you are truly Nationalists; then alone will you be able
\nto restore this great nation. In Bengal it has been realised clearly by some,
\nmore clearly by others, but it has been realised and you on this side of the
\ncountry must also realise it. Then there will be a blessing on our work, and
\nthis great nation will rise again and become once more what it was in the days
\nof its spiritual greatness. You are the instruments of God to save the Light, to
\nsave the spirit of India from lasting obscuration and abasement. Let me tell you<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-653<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

what
\nit is that has happened in Bengal. You all know what Bengal used to be; you all
\nknow that "Bengali" used to be a term of reproach among the nations;
\nwhen people spoke of Bengal, with what feelings did they speak of it? Was it
\nwith feelings of respect? Was it with feelings of admiration? You know very well
\nwhat people of other countries used to say of the Bengali. You know well what
\nyou yourselves used to say of the Bengali. Do you think that now? If anybody had
\ntold you that Bengal would come forward as the saviour of India, how many of you
\nwould have believed it? You would have said, "No. The saviour of India
\ncannot be Bengal; it may be Maharashtra; it may be the Punjab; but it will not
\nbe Bengal; the idea is absurd." What has happened then? What has caused
\nthis change? What has made the Bengali so different from his old self? One thing
\nhas happened in Bengal, and it is this that Bengal is learning to believe.
\nBengal was once drunk with the wine of European civilisation and with the purely
\nintellectual teaching that it received from the West. It began to see all
\nthings, to judge all things through the imperfect instrumentality of the
\nintellect. When it was so, Bengal became atheistic, it became a land of doubters
\nand cynics. But still in Bengal there was an element of strength. Whatever the
\nBengali believed, if he believed at all \u2014 many do not believe \u2014 but if he
\nbelieved at all, there was one thing about the Bengali, that he lived what he
\nbelieved. If he was a Brahmo, or if he was a social reformer, no matter whether
\nwhat he believed was true or not, but if he believed, he lived that belief. If
\nhe believed that one thing was necessary for the salvation of the country, if he
\nbelieved that a thing was true and that it should be done, he did not stop to
\nthink about it. He would not stop to consider from all intellectual standpoints
\nwhether the truth in it was merely an ideal and to balance whether he would do
\nhonestly what he believed or whether he could hold the belief intellectually
\nwithout living it, but without regard to consequences
\nto himself, he went and did what he believed<\/span>. <\/span>
\nAnd if<\/span> <\/span>he
\nwas not a Brahmo, if he was an orthodox Hindu, still if he really believed what
\nthe Hindu Shastras taught, he never hesitated to drive even his dearest away,
\nrather than aid by his weakness in corrupting society. He never hesitated to
\nenforce what he be-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-654<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

lieved
\nto the uttermost without thinking of the consequences to himself. Well, that was
\nthe one saving element in the Bengali nature. The Bengali has the faculty of
\nbelief. Belief is not a merely intellectual process, belief is not a mere
\npersuasion of the mind, belief is something that is in our heart, and what you
\nbelieve, you must do, because belief is from God. It is to the heart that God
\nspeaks, it is in the heart that God resides. This saved the Bengali. Because of
\nthis capacity of belief, we were chosen as the people who were to save India,
\nthe people who were to stand foremost, the people who must suffer for their
\nbelief, the people who must meet everything in the faith that God was with them
\nand that God is in them. Such a people need not be politically strong, it need
\nnot be a people sound in physique, it need not be a people of the highest
\nintellectual standing. It must be a people who can believe. In Bengal there came
\na flood of religious truth. Certain men were born, men whom the educated world
\nwould not have recognised if that belief, if that God within them had not been
\nthere to open their eyes, men whose lives were very different from what our
\neducation, our Western education, taught us to admire. One of them, the man who
\nhad the greatest influence and has done the most to regenerate Bengal, could not
\nread and write a single word. He was a man who had been what they call
\nabsolutely useless to the world. But he had this one divine faculty in him, that
\nhe had more than faith and had realised God. He was a man who lived what many
\nwould call the life of a madman, a man without intellectual training, a man
\nwithout any outward sign of culture or civilisation, a man who lived on the alms
\nof others, such a man as the English-educated Indian would ordinarily talk of
\nas one useless to society. He will say, "This man is ignorant. What does he
\nknow? What can he teach me who have received from the West all that it can teach?" But God knew what he was doing. He sent that man to Bengal and set him
\nin the temple of Dakshineshwar in Calcutta, and from North and South and East
\nand West, the educated men, men who were the pride of the university, who had
\nstudied all that Europe can teach, came to fall at the feet of this ascetic. The
\nwork of salvation, the work of raising India was begun. Consider the men who are
\nreally leading the present movement.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-655<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

One
\nthing I will ask you to observe and that is that there are very few who have not
\nbeen influenced by the touch of a Sadhu. If you ask who influenced Babu Bepin
\nChandra Pal, it was a Sadhu. Among other men who lead in Bengal is the man who
\nstarted this paper which is being prosecuted. You may not know his name here,
\nbut he is well known throughout Bengal, and he had done much to forward this
\nmovement; he is a man who has lived the life of a Sadhu, and taken his
\ninspiration and strength from that only source from which inspiration and
\nstrength can come. I spoke to you the other day about National Education and I
\nspoke of a man who had given his life to that work, the man who really organised
\nthe National College in Calcutta, and that man also is a disciple of a Sannyasin,
\nthat man also, though he lives in the world, lives like a Sannyasin, and if you
\ntake the young workers in Bengal, men that have come forward to do the work of
\nGod, what will you find? What is their strength? What is the strength which
\nenables them to bear all the obstacles that come in their way and to resist all
\nthe oppression that threatens them? Let me speak a word to you about that. There
\nis a certain section of thought in India which regards Nationalism as
\n"madness". The men who think like that are men of great intellectual
\nability, men who have studied deeply, who have studied economics, who have
\nstudied history, men who are entitled to respect, men from whom you would
\nnaturally accept leading and guidance, and they say that Nationalism will ruin
\nthe country. What is it that makes them talk like this? Many of them are
\npatriots, many of them are thoroughly sincere and honest, many of them desire
\nthe good of the country. What is it that is wanting in them? This is wanting.
\nThey are men who have lived in the pure intellect only and they look at things
\npurely from the intellectual standpoint. What does the intellect think? What
\nmust it tell you if you consult the intellect merely? Here is a work that you
\nhave undertaken, a work so gigantic, so stupendous, the means for which are so
\npoor, the resistance to which will be so strong, so organised, so disciplined,
\nso well equipped with all the weapons that science can supply, with all the
\nstrength that human power and authority can give, and what means have you with
\nwhich to carry out this tremendous work<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-656<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

of
\nyours? If you look at it intellectually, and these men look at it from the
\nintellectual standpoint, it is hopeless. Here are these men who are being
\nprosecuted. How are they going to resist? They cannot resist. They have to go
\nstraight to jail. Well, these gentlemen argue and they are arguing straight
\nfrom the intellect; they ask, "How long will you be able to resist like
\nthat? How long will this passive resistance work? All your leaders, all your
\nstrong men will be sent to jail, you will be crushed and not only will you be
\ncrushed, the nation will be completely crushed." If you argue from the
\nintellect, this seems to be true. I cannot tell you of any material weapon with
\nwhich you will meet those who are commissioned to resist your creed of
\nNationalism when you try to live it. If you ask what material weapons we have
\ngot, I must tell you that material weapons may help you no doubt but if you rely
\nwholly upon material weapons then what they say is perfectly true, that
\nNationalism is a madness. Of course, there is another side to it. If you say
\nthat Nationalism cannot avail, then again I ask the intellect of these people,
\nwhat will avail? Intellectually speaking, speaking from the Moderate’s
\nstandpoint, what will avail? What do they rely upon? They rely upon a foreign
\nforce in the country. If you do not rely upon God, if you do not rely upon
\nsomething mightier than material strength, then you will have to depend solely
\nupon what others can give. There are men who think that what God cannot give for
\nthe salvation of India, the British Government will give. What you cannot expect
\nfrom God you are going to expect from the British Government. Your expectation
\nis vain. Their interests are not yours, their interests are very different from
\nyours, and they will do what their interests tell them. You cannot expect
\nanything else. What then does this intellectual process lead you to? This
\nintellectual process, if it is used honestly, if it is followed to the very end,
\nleads you to despair. It leads you to death. You have nothing which can help
\nyou, because you have no material strength at present which the adversary cannot
\ncrush and the adversary will certainly not be so foolish as to help you, or to
\nallow you to develop the necessary strength unmolested. What then is the
\nconclusion? The only conclusion is that there is nothing to be done. The only
\ncon-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-657<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

clusion
\nis that this country is doomed. That is the conclusion to which this
\nintellectual process will lead you. I was speaking at Poona on this subject, and
\nI told them of my experience in Bengal. When I went to Bengal three or four
\nyears before the Swadeshi movement was born, to see what was the hope of
\nrevival, what was the political condition of the people, and whether there was
\nthe possibility of a real movement, what I found there was that the prevailing
\nmood was apathy and despair. People had believed that regeneration could only
\ncome from outside, that another nation would take us by the hand and lift us up
\nand that we have nothing to do for ourselves. Now that belief has been
\nthoroughly broken. They had come to realise that help cannot come from this
\nsource, and that they had nothing to rely upon. Their intellect could not tell
\nthem of any other source from which help could come, and the result was that
\napathy and despair spread everywhere and most of the workers who were really
\nhonest with themselves were saying that there was no help for this nation and
\nthat we were doomed. Well, this state of despair was the best thing that could
\nhave happened for Bengal, for it meant that the intellect had done its best,
\nthat the intellect had done all that was possible for it and that the work of
\nthe unaided intellect in Bengal was finished. The intellect having nothing to
\noffer but despair became quiescent, and when the intellect ceased to work, the
\nheart of Bengal was open and ready to receive the voice of God whenever He
\nshould speak. When the message came at last, Bengal was ready to receive it and
\nshe received it in a single moment, and in a single moment the whole nation
\nrose, the whole nation lifted itself out of delusions and out of despair, and it
\nwas by this sudden rising, by this sudden awakening from dream that Bengal found
\nthe way of salvation and declared to all India that eternal life, immortality
\nand not lasting degradation was her fate. Bengal lived in that faith. She felt a
\nmightier truth than any that earth can give, because she held that faith from
\nGod and was able to live in that faith. Then that happened which always happens
\nwhen God brings other forces to fight against the strength which he himself has
\ninspired, because it is always necessary for the divinely appointed strength to
\ngrow by suffering; without suffering, without the lesson of selflessness,
\nwithout<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-658<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the
\nmoral force of self-sacrifice, God within us cannot grow. Sri Krishna cannot
\ngrow to manhood unless he is called upon to work for others, unless the Asuric
\nforces of the world are about him and work against him and make him feel his
\nstrength. Therefore in Bengal there came a time, after the first outbreak of
\ntriumphant hope, when all the material forces that can be brought to bear
\nagainst Nationalism were gradually brought into play, and
\nthe question was asked of Bengal, "Can you suffer? Can you survive?"
\nThe young men of Bengal who had rushed forward in the frenzy of the moment, in
\nthe inspiration of the new gospel they had received, rushed forward rejoicing in
\nthe new-found strength and expecting to bear down all obstacles that came in
\ntheir way, were now called upon to suffer. They were called upon to bear the
\ncrown, not of victory, but of martyrdom. They had to learn the real nature of
\ntheir new strength. It was not their own strength, but it was the force which
\nwas working through them, and they had to learn to be the instruments of that
\nforce. What is it that we have learned then? What is the need of the situation
\nof which I am to tell you today? It is not a political programme. I have spoken
\nto you about many things. I have written about many things, about Swadeshi,
\nBoycott, National Education, Arbitration and other subjects. But there was one
\ntruth that I have always tried, and those who have worked with me have also
\ntried, to lay down as the foundation-stone of all that we preached. It is not
\nby any mere political programme, not by National Education alone, not by
\nSwadeshi alone, not by Boycott alone, that this country can be saved. Swadeshi
\nby itself may merely lead to a little more material prosperity, and when it
\ndoes, you might lose sight of the real thing you sought to do in the glamour of
\nwealth, in the attraction of wealth and in the desire to keep it safe. In other
\nsubject countries also, there was material development; under the Roman Empire
\nthere was material development, there was industrial progress, but industrial
\nprogress and material development did not bring life to the Nation. When the
\nhour of trial came, it was found that these nations which had been developing
\nindustrially, which had been developing materially, were not alive. No, they
\nwere dead and at a touch from outside they<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-659<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

crumbled
\nto pieces. So, do not think that it is any particular programme or any
\nparticular method which is the need of the situation. These are merely ways of
\nworking; they are merely
\nparticular concrete lines upon which<\/span>
\n<\/span>the spirit of <\/span>God
\nis working in a Nation, but they are not in themselves the one thing needful.
\nWhat is the one thing needful? What is it that has helped the older men who have
\ngone to prison? What is it that has been their strength, that has enabled them
\nto stand against all temptations and against all dangers and obstacles? They
\nhave had one and all of them consciously or unconsciously one over-mastering
\nidea, one idea which nothing can shake, and this was the idea that there is a
\ngreat Power at work to help India, and that we are doing what it bids us. Often
\nthey do not understand what they are doing. They do not always realise who
\nguides or where he will guide them; but they have this conviction within, not in
\nthe intellect but in the heart, that the Power that is guiding them is
\ninvincible, that it is Almighty, that it is immortal and irresistible and that
\nit will do its work. They have nothing to do. They have simply to obey that
\nPower. They have simply to go where it leads them. They have only to speak the
\nwords that it tells them to speak, and to do the thing that it tells them to do.
\nIf the finger points them to prison, to the prison they go. Whatever it bids
\nthem to endure, they gladly endure. They do not know how that enduring will
\nhelp, and the worldy-wise people may tell them that it is impolitic, that by
\ndoing this they will be wasting the strength of the country, they will be
\nthrowing the best workers away, they are not saving up the forces of the
\ncountry. But we know that the forces of the country are other than outside
\nforces. There is only one force, and for that force, I am not necessary, you are
\nnot necessary, he is not necessary. Neither myself nor another, nor Bepin
\nChandra Pal, nor all these workers who have gone to prison. None of them is
\nnecessary. Let them be thrown as so much waste substance, the country will not
\nsuffer. God is doing everything. We are not doing anything. When he bids us
\nsuffer, we suffer because the suffering is necessary to give others strength.
\nWhen he throws us away, he does so because we are no longer required. If things
\nbecome worse, we shall have not only to go to jail, but<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-660<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

give
\nup our lives, and if those who seem to stand in front or to be absolutely
\nindispensable are called upon to throw their bodies away, we shall then know
\nthat that also is wanted, that this is a work God has asked us to do, and that
\nin the place of those who are thrown away, God will bring many more. He himself
\nis behind us. He himself is the worker and the work. He is immortal in the
\nhearts of his people. Faith then is what we have in Bengal. Some of us may not
\nhave it consciously; some may not call it by that particular name. As I said, we
\nhave developed intellectuality, we have developed it notably and we are still
\nmuch dominated by it. Many have come to this greater belief through the longing
\nto live for their countrymen, to suffer for their countrymen, because God is not
\nonly here in me, he is within all of you, it is God whom I love, it is God
\nfor whom I wish to suffer. In that way many have come to do what God bade them
\ndo and he knows which way to lead a man. When it is his will he will lead him
\naright.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>Another thing which is only another name for faith is selflessness. This
\nmovement in Bengal, this movement of Nationalism is not guided by any
\nself-interest, not at the heart of it. Whatever there may be in some minds, it
\nis not, at the heart of it, a political self-interest that we are pursuing. It
\nis a religion which we are trying to live. It is a religion by which we are
\ntrying to realise God in the nation, in our fellow-countrymen. We are trying to
\nrealise him in the three hundred millions of our people. We are trying, some of
\nus consciously, some of us unconsciously, we are trying to live not for our own
\ninterests, but to work and to die for others. When a young worker in Bengal has
\nto go to jail, when he is asked to suffer, he does not feel any pang in that
\nsuffering, he does not fear suffering. He goes forward with joy. He says,
\n"The hour of my consecration has come, and I have to thank God now that the
\ntime for laying myself on his altar has arrived and that I have been chosen to
\nsuffer for the good of my countrymen. This is the hour of my greatest joy and
\nthe fulfilment of my life." This is the second aspect of our religion, and
\nis the absolute denial of the idea of one’s separate self, and the finding of
\none’s higher eternal Self in the three hundred millions of people in whom God
\nhimself lives.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-661<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

The
\nthird thing which is again another name for faith and selflessness is courage.
\nWhen you believe in God, when you believe that God is guiding you, believe that
\nGod is doing all and that you are doing nothing, \u2014 what is there to fear? How
\ncan you fear when it is your creed, when it is your religion to throw yourself
\naway, to throw your money, your body, your life and all that you have, away for
\nothers? What is it that you have to fear? There is nothing to fear. Even when
\nyou are called before the tribunals of this world, you can face them with
\ncourage. Because your very religion means that you have courage. Because it is
\nnot you, it is something within you. What can all these tribunals, what can all
\nthe powers of the world do to that which is within you, that Immortal, that
\nUnborn and Undying One, whom the sword cannot pierce, whom the fire cannot
\nburn, and whom the water cannot drown? Him the jail cannot confine and the
\ngallows cannot end. What is there that you can fear when you are conscious of
\nhim who is within you? Courage is then a necessity, courage is natural and
\ncourage is inevitable. If you rely upon other forces, supposing that you are a
\nNationalist in the European sense, meaning in a purely materialistic sense, that
\nis to say, if you want to replace the dominion of the foreigner by the dominion
\nof somebody else, it is a purely material change; it is not a religion, it is
\nnot that you feel for the three hundred millions of your countrymen, that you
\nwant to raise them up, that you want to make them all free and happy. It is not
\nthat, but you have got some idea that your nation is different from another
\nnation and that these people are outsiders and that you ought to be ruling in
\ntheir place. What you want is not freedom for your countrymen, but you want to
\nreplace the rule of others by yours. If you go in that spirit, what will happen
\nwhen a time of trial comes? Will you have courage? Will you face it? You see
\nthat is merely an intellectual conviction that you have, that is merely a reason
\nwhich your outer mind suggests to you. Well, when it comes to be put to the
\ntest, what will your mind say to you? What will your intellect say to you? It
\nwill tell you, "It is all very well to work for the country, but, in the
\nmeanwhile, I am going to die, or at least to be given a great deal of trouble,
\nand when<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-662<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the
\nfruit is reaped, I shall not be there to enjoy it. How can I bear all this
\nsuffering for a dream?" You have this house of yours, you have this
\nproperty, you have so many things which will be attacked, and so you say,
\n"That is not the way for me." If you have not the divine strength of
\nfaith and unselfishness, you will not be able to escape from other attachments,
\nyou will not like to bear affliction simply for the sake of a change by which
\nyou will not profit. How can courage come from such a source? But when you have
\na higher idea, when you have realised that you have nothing, that you are
\nnothing and that the three hundred millions of people of this country are God in
\nthe Nation, something which cannot be measured by so much land, or by so
\nmuch
\nmoney<\/span>, <\/span>
\nor
\nby so many lives, you will then realise that it <\/span>is
\nsomething immortal, that the idea for which you are working is something
\nimmortal and that it is an immortal Power which is working in you. All other
\nattachments are nothing. Every other consideration disappears from your mind,
\nand, as I said, there is no need to cultivate courage. You are led on by that
\nPower. You are protected through life and death by One who survives in the very
\nhour of death, you feel your immortality in the hour of your worst sufferings,
\nyou feel you are invincible.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>Now I have told you that these three things are the need of the present
\nsituation, because, as I said, the situation is this: you have undertaken a
\nwork, you have committed yourselves to something which seems to be materially
\nimpossible. You have undertaken a work which will rouse against you the
\nmightiest enemies whom the earth can bring forward. As in the ancient times,
\nwhen the Avatars came, there were also born the mightiest Daityas and Asuras to
\nface the Avatars, so it always is. You may be sure that if you embrace this
\nreligion of Nationalism, you will have to meet such tremendous forces as no mere
\nmaterial power can resist. The hour of trial is not distant, the hour of trial
\nis already upon you. What will be the use of your intellectual conviction? What
\nwill be the use of your outward enthusiasm? What will be the use of your
\nshouting "Bande Mataram"? What will be the use of all the mere outward
\nshow when the hour of trial comes? Put yourselves in the place of those people
\nwho are suffering in Bengal, and think whether they have<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-663<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n


\nthe strength
\nand whether if it comes to you, you have the strength to meet it. With what
\nstrength will you meet it? How can you work invincibly? How can you meet it and
\nsurvive? Can you answer that question? I have tried to show you that not by your
\nmaterial strength can you meet it. Have you the other strength in you? Have you
\nrealised what Nationalism is? Have you realised that it is a religion that you
\nare embracing? If you have, then call yourselves Nationalists; and when you have
\ncalled yourselves Nationalists, then try to live your Nationalism. Try to
\nrealise the strength within you, try to bring it forward, so that everything you
\ndo may be not your own doing, but the doing of that Truth within you. Try so
\nthat every hour that you live shall be enlightened by that presence, that every
\nthought of yours shall be inspired from that one fountain of inspiration, that
\nevery faculty and quality in you may be placed at the service of that immortal
\nPower within you. Then you will not say, as I have heard so many of you say,
\nthat people are so slow to take up this idea, that people are so slow to work,
\nthat you have no fit leaders and that all your great men tell you a different
\nthing and that none of them is ready to come forward to guide you in the path
\nthat is pointed out. You will have no complaints to make against others, because
\nthen you will not need any leader. The leader is within yourselves. If you can
\nonly find him and listen to his voice, then you will not find that people will
\nnot listen to you, because there will be a voice within the people which will
\nmake itself heard. That voice and that strength is within you. If you feel it
\nwithin yourselves, if you live in its presence, if it has become yourselves,
\nthen you will find that one word from you will awake an answering voice in
\nothers, that the creed which you preach will spread and will be received by all
\nand that it will not be very long \u2014<\/span>
\n in Bengal it has not been very long, it has not
\ntaken a century or fifty years, it has only taken three years to change the
\nwhole nation, to give it a new spirit and heart and to put it in front of all
\nthe Indian races. From Bengal has come the example of Nationalism. Bengal which
\nwas the least respected and the most looked-down on of all the Indian races for
\nits weakness has within these three years changed so much simply because the men
\nthere who were called to receive God<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-664<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

within
\nthemselves were able to receive him, were able to bear, to suffer and live in
\nthat Power, and by living in that Power they were able to give it out. And so in
\nthree years the whole race of Bengal has been changed, and you are obliged, to
\nask in wonder, "What is going on in Bengal?" You see a movement which
\nno obstacle can stop, you see a great development which no power can resist, you
\nsee the birth of the Avatar in the Nation, and if you have received God within
\nyou, if you have received that power within you, you will see that God will
\nchange the rest of India in even a much shorter time, because the Power has
\nalready gone forth, and is declaring itself, and when once declared, it
\nwill continue its work with ever greater and greater rapidity. It will continue
\nits work with the matured force of Divinity until the whole world sees and until
\nthe whole world understands him, until Sri Krishna, who has now hid himself in Gokul, who is now among the poor and despised of the earth, who is <\/i>now
\namong the cowherds of Brindaban, will declare the Godhead, and the whole nation
\nwill rise, the whole people of this great country will rise, filled with divine
\npower, filled with the inspiration of the Almighty, and no power on earth shall
\nresist it, and no danger or difficulty shall stop it in its onward course.
\nBecause God is there, and it is his Mission, and he has something for us to do.
\nHe has a work for this great and ancient nation. Therefore he has been born
\nagain to do it, therefore he is revealing himself in you not that you may be
\nlike other nations, not that you may rise merely by human strength to trample
\nunderfoot the weaker peoples, but because something must come out from you which
\nis to save the whole world. That something is what the ancient Rishis knew and
\nrevealed, and that is to be known and revealed again today, it has to be
\nrevealed to the whole world and in order that he may reveal himself, you must
\nfirst realise him in yourselves, you must shape your lives, you must shape the
\nlife of this great nation so that it may be fit to reveal him and then your task
\nwill be done, and you will realise that what you are doing today is no mere
\npolitical uprising, no mere political change, but that you have been called upon
\nto do God’s work.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>, <\/i><\/font>January 19, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-665<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nBande Mataram<\/font><\/a>*<\/font><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span>                    Sj.
\nAurobindo said that he was exceedingly pleased to know that the song had become
\nso popular in all parts of India and that it was being so repeatedly sung. He
\nsaid that he would make this national anthem the subject of his speech. The
\nsong, he said, was not only a national anthem to be looked on as the European
\nnations look upon their own, but one replete with mighty power, being a sacred
\nmantra<\/i>,
\n<\/i>revealed to us by the author of Ananda Math<\/i>, <\/i>who might be called an
\ninspired Rishi. He described the manner in which the mantra <\/i>had been
\nrevealed to Bankim Chandra, probably by a Sannyasi under whose teaching he was.
\nHe said that the mantra <\/i>was not an invention, but a revivification of the
\nold mantra <\/i>which had become extinct, so to speak, by the treachery of one
\nNavakishan. The mantra <\/i>of Bankim Chandra was not appreciated in his own
\nday, and he predicted that there would come a time when the whole of India would
\nresound with the singing of the song, and the word of the prophet was
\nmiraculously fulfilled. The meaning of the song was not understood then because
\nthere was no patriotism except such as consisted in making India the shadow of
\nEngland and other countries which dazzled the sight of the sons of this our
\nMotherland with their glory and opulence. The so-called patriots of that time
\nmight have been the well-wishers of India but not men who loved her. One who
\nloved his mother never looked to her defects, never disregarded her as an
\nignorant, superstitious, degraded and decrepit woman. The speaker then unfolded
\nthe meaning of the song. As with the individual, so with the nation, there were
\nthree bodies or kosas<\/i>, <\/i>the sthūla<\/i>, sūksma <\/i>and k<\/i><\/font>ā<\/i><\/font>rana <\/i>
\n <\/font> ś<\/i><\/font>ar<\/i><\/font>ī<\/i><\/font>ras<\/i>. <\/i>In
\nthis way the speaker went on clearing up the hidden meaning of the song. The
\nmanner in which he treated of love and devotion was exceedingly touching and the
\naudience sat before him like dumb statues, not knowing where they were or
\nwhether they were listening to a prophet revealing to them the higher mysteries
\nof<\/font><\/p>\n

               
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>* This is the summary of a lecture delivered by Sri Aurobindo in the
\nGrand Square of the National School, Amraoti, Berar, on Wednesday the 29th
\nJanuary, 1908. The meeting commenced with the singing of Bande Mataram.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-666<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

life.
\nHe then concluded with a most pathetic appeal to true patriotism and exhorted
\nthe audience to love the Motherland and sacrifice everything to bring about her
\nsalvation.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>, <\/i><\/font>January 29, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-667<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Present Situation*                             My Fellow-Countrymen, Mr. Ranade has said that there is no President here, but that God himself is our President….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","wpcat-8-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}